Well I’ve just got in from a harbour scratching LRF session with my mate Rob, I didn’t manage to take any pictures because he had all the fancy pants equipment, but I’m awaiting some photos of a goliath scorpion fish.. Seriously the thing was huge compared to any I’ve caught in the past!
After the last blog post I have had a vendetta out for catching flounder, after many online discussion, watching You Tube Videos, talking to the local old boys an reading many books about flounder an their habits I had built up enough of a clue to go out an target them with some confidence an knowledge. Like I said in the last blog post I hooked up an lost a dinner plate a few weeks back, as much as I was gutted I had a huge spur of confidence, trying to find free time an dealing with man flu (yet again!) I managed a few sessions with mixed results from the same location I lost the first flounder…
First up I’m struggling to avoid the school bass on LRF, sounds strange that I’m trying to avoid them. but when you start understanding where food will hold up in quiet corners, its only a matter of time be for a bass comes along an raid the area, right now fishing anywhere over sunset on a quiet evening around Weymouth an Portland you could easily find the bass.
At last my first LRF flounder comes to the net, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! This little fella came to a the deadly Power isome, I still cant get over how good this stuff is, its accounting now for dozens of species big an small. This rig was a simple split shot rig with a size 14 hook an AAA split shot.
The key difference was in the retrieve, cast out, let it sink, then a high lift of the rod tip, let it sink an wait, repeat this right back to your feet. From what I gather the flounder cant see your lure if its only bopping inches above the sea bed, yes will eventually catch one as you pass the lure over its nose, but flounder are always looking up an side ways an will rise very high up in the water column to take a bait. To try this theory out I went back to the same spot an used a small 1inch white reins paddle tail mounted on a 2g size 8 jig head with an extra split shot a couple inches up the line. It wasn’t long before I felt that same nibble on the rod tip like the flounder that I lost before. For a fish that can grow to a good size, they have very small mouths an you can almost feel them turning the lure in their mouths, again like I learnt from a you tube video of some guys over in the states I waited 5 seconds or more before gently setting the hook.. BOOM! the reel spun up as the fish darted off, at first I thought I had been fooled by a mackerel but sure enough this new PB flounder came in, lucky I had a friend of mine Sean at hand to jump down an grab the fish. Mate.. Big thank you because I would have been stuffed trying to get that fish up the wall on my own.
Here’s a picture of Sean with his first LRF lure caught Goby. Well done mate!
An here’s another first, Laurens first scorpion fish, there’s something special about catching these little mini beast an always brings me a smile as it was only last year I was asking people for advice on how to catch these fish, like flounder this fish used to me target species an took me an age to eventually catch on lure.
hope you enjoyed the read, next report will be about that goliath scorpian fish i caught today.. first time ive had to use a landing net for a scorpian fish!
Nice going Will and especially well done on the new PB Flounder! They are a very tough nut for me to crack these days, as they have all but been wiped out from our local harbour and estuaries.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you prefer to lift and bounce your lure. As a kid, I caught untold numbers of flounder in the local estuaries by fishing the edges of the navigation channel in my little mirror dinghy, using just the jib to give me headway. Most successful "lure" was a shiny spoon, anything from a foot to 18 inches from the baited hook.
Yet when fishing from my favourite shore mark for flounder, I would simply lower my running ledger down over the side of the quay wall onto a sandy area, - all the rest was soft mud or rubble strewn - allow it to touch the seabed, settle my rod down beside me and then give it a few turns to lift the lead free of the bottom. Every couple of minutes, I would simply pull 6 inches or so of line back through the eye and then release it. This would cause the weight to sit there in the water, bouncing away in time with the rod tip. Almost guaranteed that before the weight and rod tip had settled down and become still, there would be a flounder on the hook!